The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
In conventional database systems, users access their data resources in one logical database. A user of such a conventional system typically retrieves data from and stores data on the system using the user's own systems. A user system might remotely access one of a plurality of server systems that might in turn access the database system. Data retrieval from the system might include the issuance of a query from the user system to the database system. The database system might process the request for information received in the query and send to the user system, information relevant to the request. The rapid and efficient retrieval of accurate information and subsequent delivery of this information to the user system has been and continues to be a goal of administrators of database systems.
In a multi-tenant database system, tenants may want to share data with each other. Each time a tenant requests to share data, the data has to be fetched from one tenant's storage space and transferred to the second tenant's storage space. In addition to fetching data, the metadata associated with the data has to be fetched. Fetching data and metadata is a time consuming process.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide techniques for faster transfer of data between tenants.